IIE’s Jason Czyz On International Education in the A.I. Age

As college students prepare for the start of the new academic year, many are worrying about their future employability in a world that is constantly being reshaped by A.I. Universities share this concern by revising curricula to include more technology training and helping students develop fluency with increasingly powerful tools. This is a clear-eyed and necessary response. However, what strikes me is that these efforts may be backward. If A.I. can provide technical knowledge, generate data analyses, write code and summarize information, then what competencies will become more valuable precisely because machines cannot replicate them? Universities should be investing more heavily in the capabilities that remain distinctly human: sound judgment, adaptability, communication, and the ability to build relationships.

These skills will become a greater source of competitive advantage in an A.I.-driven economy. The challenge for higher education institutions and companies, then, is not simply to teach students and young adults how to use the latest technology. It is to prepare them to operate effectively when technology cannot provide a complete answer: navigating unfamiliar situations, understanding different perspectives, earning trust, collaborating across cultures and making judgment calls when there is no clear playbook. International education, whether through a study abroad program, an international internship or another structured experience abroad, should be a key part of that preparation.  

International education has often been positioned as an enrichment opportunity that is valuable, certainly, but separate from the “real” work of preparing students for careers. That distinction has become difficult to justify. An international experience provides a form of cultural and professional fluency that cannot be recreated in a classroom. Universities have an opportunity to make that experience part of the educational infrastructure available to a much broader range of students. 

When young people attend school or work abroad, they must quickly adapt to a new environment, often where the language, customs and norms may be completely different from what they are used to. They learn to build trust and relationships with people from different backgrounds. They start to instinctively consider a variety of perspectives when solving problems. And they develop the confidence to navigate situations where there is no obvious blueprint. 

A student may know how to analyze a problem, but working in an unfamiliar cultural environment requires them to determine which questions to ask, whose perspective they may be missing, how to communicate when assumptions differ and how to adjust when an initial approach fails. It is difficult to simulate that kind of uncertainty in a classroom. Those are the kinds of capabilities that become more important as technology takes on more of the informational work. 

A recent report from the Institute of International Education and the AIFS Foundation underscores what years of anecdotal evidence have indicated: international education experiences are transformative learning opportunities. Researchers surveyed 44 individuals with professional leadership roles, representing fields ranging from engineering and technology to finance and law, who participated in an international education experience in countries spanning Europe, Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and Oceania. Nearly all of those surveyed said their educational experiences abroad had an impact on their professional growth, career trajectories and skill development.

Critically, the leaders consistently pointed to communication and collaboration with people from a wide range of backgrounds as skills they developed while abroad. One found her experience studying in the United Kingdom particularly valuable after a European corporation acquired her company. Others stressed the increasingly global nature of today’s marketplace.

Their international experiences gave them opportunities to develop and practice skills that later became relevant when their work required them to operate across organizations, cultures and markets. These are the sorts of skills that will define talent competition in the 21st century.

International education as workforce preparation

Universities and employers should treat international education as workforce preparation for the A.I. economy, rather than as an additive experience alongside academics. That means moving international education closer to the center of how universities think about career readiness, rather than leaving it at the margins as an optional experience for students who have the time, money or flexibility to participate. Programs can take many forms, from long-term university-employer partnerships to international internships tied directly to students’ fields of study. What matters is the direct link between international experience and the skills and careers that students are preparing for.

Several universities are already innovating their workforce development programs to take advantage of international education and global connections. The University of Southern California, for example, allows students in its master’s program in applied psychology to complete their required internship in Dublin, where they work with local businesses on market research, consumer insights, human resources and user experience projects. For one student who interned at a Dublin law firm in 2022, the experience helped lead to a position as the head of customer success at a technology startup.

Similarly, a collaboration between the Honduran Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana (UNITEC) and North Carolina State University’s Wilson College of Textiles develops training programs designed for the textile industry’s needs. And through Arizona State University’s new, free online course, tens of thousands of students in Mexico have learned the fundamentals of microelectronics and nanoelectronics—knowledge critical to the production of the semiconductors fueling A.I. advances.

The benefits extend beyond individual students. The USC-Dublin program has become a reason students choose the master’s program, while Irish employers value the enthusiasm and perspective international interns bring to their organizations.

There’s also a competitive argument for universities themselves. At a time when institutions are competing for students and employers are competing for talent, global experiences can become part of what distinguishes an educational program, demonstrating that students are being prepared for the realities of an interconnected workforce. 

If universities become more deliberate in including international experiences as part of career preparation, then there is an opportunity for them to stand out in a crowded field of higher education. Doing so means universities will need to build it into degree pathways, connect it to employers and careers and help students understand how to translate the experience into skills they can carry into the workplace. I have a few recommendations:

• Integrate international work into degree pathways. Identify and promote internship opportunities abroad and connect those experiences directly to students’ fields of study. 
• Market global experiences as career preparation rather than just enrichment. Students across disciplines should understand the professional value of the skills that international experiences cultivate, including communication, adaptability, collaboration and judgment. 
• Build reflection into the experience. Universities should help students articulate the transferable skills and competencies they developed abroad so that they can communicate that value to prospective employers.
• Multiply opportunities. If international experience represents a meaningful form of career capital, universities should consider how to make these opportunities available to students who might otherwise be excluded by cost, circumstance, or their field of study. 

Universities have an opportunity to turn what has often been a form of enrichment for a small group of students into a more broadly accessible component of career preparation. The institutions that do this well will be better positioned to develop talent for the A.I.-driven economy of the future. 

Competitive advantage will not simply come from producing graduates who know how to use the latest technology. It will come from producing graduates who know when to use it, how to question its output, how to work with people who see a problem differently and how to make decisions when the answer is not obvious. As A.I. takes on more of the work of generating information and executing tasks, higher education should invest more deliberately in the experiences that teach students how to interpret, connect, adapt and lead. 

The A.I. race, in other words, is not only about who builds the smartest machines. It is about who develops the people who know what to do with them. International education is a core part of that process.